


Family Planning

by eggboyksoo



Series: chaos, family, love [6]
Category: NCT (Band), WayV (Band)
Genre: Adoption, Day 2: Family, M/M, Teenage Pregnancy, Written for KuntenWeek2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22445956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggboyksoo/pseuds/eggboyksoo
Summary: Starting a family is hard.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Series: chaos, family, love [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1367032
Comments: 43
Kudos: 255
Collections: In Every Lifetime: A KunTen Fan Week





	Family Planning

**Author's Note:**

> hello. hi. it took me a little while to write this, but i wanted to tackle something new for kunten week! the one thing i'd have to say is that while i did try to do some bare minimum researching, i'm totally aware that something like this doesn't happen In Real Life, so please suspend any disbelief because i didn't realise how problematic the timeline would become in regards to when kunten had their kids when i first started writing in this au lmao. 
> 
> also, i've checked this over for flow and typos, but this hasn't been beta read currently, so please ignore any glaring typos. i hope you enjoy anyway!

Starting a family is hard.

It always is, according to the numerous books and articles Kun’s read on the topic. Kun and Ten’s difficulties might be different from the norm, but they’re still difficulties. And although they both want to be parents, sometimes almost desperately, as their friends expand their families, sometimes Kun wonders if the struggle is worth it.

“We should’ve done it like you guys,” Ten says one night at Johnny and Taeyong’s place, staring forlornly at his tea. Their normally pristine living area is littered with toys, and the table is angled so Taeyong and Johnny can keep an eye out on their rambunctious sons. Kun doesn’t have prime viewing, but he can see them too. He watches the twins babble amongst themselves as they play together, chuckles as Donghyuck watches his elder brothers for a moment, before quickly crawling away from them, as if repulsed. He loves Johnny and Taeyong’s kids, and he loves being an uncle, but seeing Johnny’s cautious eye as Donghyuck uses the furniture to pull himself up onto his little legs, and the way Taeyong’s eyes sparkle as he sees Mark and Hendery play, well. It hurts. It’s like picking at a scab.

“You’ve always wanted to adopt, Tennie. And so does Kun.” Johnny’s voice is always so soft when he talks to Ten these days, always aware of how fragile his best friend is, even though Ten tries not to make it public knowledge. “You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

“And our way wasn’t much easier,” Taeyong adds, taking a sip of his tea. “Don’t you remember that time we didn’t speak to each other for a week over some egg donor profiles?”

Ten rolls his eyes and says, “That was literally the worst week of my life.”

Kun loves Johnny and Taeyong, but they’d been Ten’s friends first. When they fought—which, to be fair, was very rarely—Ten found himself caught in the middle. They’d managed to divide and conquer; Kun had spent a lot of time hearing Taeyong rant, pouring him glasses of wine and offering him cheese platters. Ten, in contrast, had spent a lot of time with Johnny, apparently avoiding the issue.

“Look what came out of it, though,” Kun says, as Donghyuck squeals. He grins as Mark flinches, turning to watch his baby brother with wide eyes. Donghyuck ignores him, sprawling himself into Hendery’s lap.

It’s everything that Kun wants.

“You’ll have it one day,” Taeyong says, reaching out for Kun’s hand. He sounds like he’s trying to make a promise, but Kun’s heart has been broken a little too much to remain optimistic.

“Yes,” Ten says, his voice echoing the hollowness Kun feels when he thinks a little too hard about the family they want and don’t have, “But not any time soon.”

* * *

It had been Ten who had suggested it, during their honeymoon. Room service had brought in their breakfast, too lazy to leave the room for a more local meal, and Kun was opening the blinds to let the sun in and to look out on the glorious view.

Ten had flopped onto their large bed, dressed in nothing but a dressing gown, and said, “We should adopt from China.”

Kun had stared at his new husband, still holding onto the curtains in shock. Ten had just raised an eyebrow and stared back.

“Are you sure?” Kun asked. “It’ll take a long time. There are laws, what if they won’t allow—”

“Then we go to Plan B, whatever it is,” Ten replied. “We don’t have to start right away, but we’ve been together for a long time, and I know it’s gonna take awhile. I just want to have a plan.”

They _had_ talked about it before, in passing and whenever Ten and Kun came into contact with adorable children. But not so upfront like this. Not actively planning their future. Something tightened within Kun—love, affection, attraction, perhaps a mixture of both—and Kun moved towards the bed, pinning Ten down and said, “I love you. You know that?”

“I’d be worried if you didn’t,” Ten grinned, putting his arms around him. “I wouldn’t have planned a killer wedding otherwise.”

Even though children weren’t on their mind that night, it sows a seed in Kun’s heart. For weeks and months to come, when he looks at Ten, he can see it in his face too. There’s a glint, a promise: _We’re going to create our own family, we will_ , and it means everything.

* * *

Here’s the thing: sometimes you can do everything right, and you don’t win. Kun knows this, because he’s always been a rule abider his whole life, and sometimes he’s paid the consequences for something he shouldn’t because he was too nice, too courteous. Ten, in comparison, is his more outspoken, more brave other half. He’s not afraid to play dirty, and even then, you can’t be guaranteed a victory.

But with something like adoption, especially when your future children are miles away and there’s a bunch of red tape to overcome, you can’t play dirty. You have to do everything right as protection for yourself, and for those kids involved. When Kun’s not flying, he’s over forum sites, looking at agency reviews, making sure they’re in compliance to the law. When Ten’s not running himself ragged at the studio, or not fixing up designs at home, he’s reading the forums, looking for tips about adopting abroad, trying to put them into contact with people who have tried and succeeded at it.

It takes a long time to develop a shortlist, and a longer time to decide on a single agency, the one that will give them their best chance.

They fill out forms; they have to go to all sorts of different governmental departments to make sure they have all the paperwork they need; they do interviews. They dot every i, they cross every t. The agency thanks them, and promises that they will be contacted when a decision had been made on their application.

Except that they don’t.

If there had been a clear no, they could’ve moved on. If there had been a clear no, they could look somewhere else, explore more options. But they can’t, because if they wake up and the agency tells them that there are kids waiting for them, they don’t want to have to refuse. And so they wait. They wait for a year, and they never get contacted.

He knows that Johnny’s worried it’s a scam. Kun knows it isn’t; he trusts the research he and Ten had put in, the sleepless nights they cuddled together in bed, both reading information off of Ten’s iPad, discussing potential difficulties and ways to combat them. But they didn’t plan for this.

Every passing day feels like a failure. Kun knows he should move on, but he doesn’t want to fail the system, or the kids on the other end, who probably don’t know they’re wanted, desperately wanted.

And so they keep waiting, and the hollowness deep in the parts of his soul grows, and sometimes all he can do he curl into Ten some nights, hoping that when they’re both wrapped around it, it closes up.

* * *

Kun has never met Michelle, the younger daughter of one of Kun’s mom’s friends, but he’s heard a lot about her. She’s almost a whole decade younger than him, with her whole life in front of her. She wants to be a doctor, and she’s doing amazing at school. She’s smart, beautiful, talented, kind—

“She’s _pregnant_ ,” his mother announces, as Kun cuts up some cucumbers for his salad. “Her mother is religious, won’t let her do anything about it. She’s very angry, she didn’t re\alise she had a boyfriend. I’m surprised she had time to have a boyfriend, let alone—”

“Will she keep the baby?”

“To give birth, yes,” Kun’s mother continues, shaking her head. “But she’s too young to have a baby. Such a shame.”

Rationally, Kun agrees—Michelle is seventeen, and he’s heard she has big dreams and plans. It’s not fair that her whole life could be derailed like this. And yet, the emotional part of him, that deep, hollow pit that’s opened up underneath his stomach and deep into his soul, it’s mad that a baby is seen as a _shameful_ thing, and how easy it is for some to acquire babies they don’t want, when he and Ten have been trying, and they’re still waiting.

“Ah, Kun,” his mother immediately says, correctly reading his silence, “I’m sorry—”

“It’s fine, Mama,” he says, smile tight. She doesn’t mean any harm, and he knows it. “What will happen to Michelle?”

Kun’s mom purses her lips. “Her mother is very angry,” she says. “Her father is more disappointed than anything, but her mother… she’s my friend, and I think she’s being unfair. She is putting too much stress on Michelle, and now the baby too.”

He hears what’s being unsaid: she doesn’t have anywhere to go. Some of the aunties would have been jealous of how proud her mother had been of her. Her pregnancy would be a triumph for them just as much as they would consider it a shame.

Gut twisting—what Kun’s learnt in his fruitless pursuit of children is that some people _really_ shouldn’t have children—Kun says, “Her family don’t live far from Ten and I, right?”

“Not more than twenty minutes.” His mom raises an eyebrow. “What are you planning?”

“Do you have her phone number?” Kun asks. His gut burns now, from misplaced anger or misplaced parental instincts, he doesn’t know. “We have a spare room. If she needs somewhere to go, hopefully this could be something.”

“Kunkun, you don’t have to—”

“People are more than just whether or not they have babies, Mama,” Kun says, although he’s not sure who he’s meant to be assuring. “We’ll be glad to help her out. We have the room.”

* * *

Michelle peers into the guest room, wringing her hands. She looks a little too anxious for Kun’s liking. It had taken Kun a long time to be able to take her duffle bag from her.

“You really didn’t have to do this,” Michelle says, looking at both of them. “I’m sure I could’ve found a friend to to take me in, just until my mom calmed down—”

“We wanted to,” Ten says firmly, reaching for her hand. “Don’t worry about it.”

Michelle peers at Kun. “The aunties _love_ you. If they find out you’re helping me—”

“The aunties gossiped about me for weeks when I brought my first boyfriend home,” Kun says, “And despite being very gay and being in a committed relationship for years, they were surprised when I decided I was getting married. I’ve always been their problematic fave.”

Ten grimaces at the term, but this seems to relax Michelle. She steps hesitantly into the room. “Thank you, though. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just… I don’t know.”

She looks so young and so lost. She looks too young to be that lost.

Ten steps forward. “Is it alright if I give you a hug?” He says. “It looks like you need one.”

Michelle stands there, wringing her hands for one long moment, before nodding. “Please. I think I really need one.”

Ten embraces her, patting the top of her head. “Hey, it’s okay,” he says. “Not everyone has it figured out. You’ve got time.”

“My parents hate me, and my boyfriend broke up with me,” Michelle says quietly.

“Fuck them,” Ten says, both controversially but not unexpectedly. “You have your friends, and—and, well. I guess you have us now, if you want that. If you need anything, let us know, okay?”

When Michelle lifts her head, her eyes are puffy and teary, but she smiles. “Thank you,” she says. “Thank you so much, really.”

* * *

(Later, when Kun sits on the couch with his husband, children sprawled all over them, he’ll realise that Michelle is their first kid. A trial run, of sorts.)

* * *

Michelle likes hot chocolates and likes to talk about things excitedly while they watch television. She asks inquisitive questions about Kun’s flying and Ten’s designing, and she seems genuinely interested in the things that Kun makes one without realising the night she goes home and realises how quiet their house has become.

She comes back two days later, with a perfectly baked cake and a clear reluctance to leave.

“It’s the least I could do,” she says, as she hands it over. “It really meant a lot to me, what you did.”

Kun smiles, hoping he comes across as warm as possible. “It’s the least we could do, really.”

“How have things been going with your mom?” Ten asks, cutting the cake into slices. He leaves the biggest one for Michelle.

Michelle stills, looking down at her feet. In her baggy shirt, no one would suspect she’s pregnant. “I mean, just because my dad told me I needed to come back home, it’s not like she’s happy with me.”

“She’ll come round,” Kun says, trying to appease her, but Michelle shakes her head.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot, recently,” he says. “About my mom, and I. And how like, apparently she tells the aunties everything that I’m doing, and she’s so _proud_ of it, but she’s never told me. And yeah, I messed up, but—”

The teenager sways on her feet a little, clearly a little overwhelmed, and as both Ten and Kun rush to sit her down, his heart aches for her.

“Nothing I’ll do will make up for it,” Michelle says quietly. “Having a baby ruins my perfect daughter image. Anything and everything I’d do would be wrong. If I’d gotten rid of the baby, I’d be immoral. If I have the baby, she’ll be ashamed of me. She’d hate me if I _kept_ the baby, but I feel like that’s what they’d want me to do—”

“What do _you_ want to do, Michelle?” Ten asks.

Michelle bites her lip. “I’m scared, of what’s going to happen if I have the baby. But I know my parents won’t ever forgive me if I get rid of it. And I’m scared that I’ll pick the wrong parents for my baby if I adopt them out. I’m just _scared_. I just wish someone would tell me what to _do_. My parents don’t even want to talk about it—”

Ten is patting her head and offering her a shoulder to cry on before Kun has even realised Michelle is breaking down. He comes to put a hand on her shoulder, wanting to help her understand she’s not _alone_ , although she feels like she is. When Ten looks up at Kun, his eyes are watery, and Kun reaches out to touch his cheek. Because he gets it.

“I know we’re not your parents,” Ten starts, and the situation is so dire that Kun forgets about the hollowness, at knowing he’s _no one’s_ parents, “But like we said. If you need help, we’re here. I know your dad wants you to stay at your place, but we’re always a phone call away.”

“Do you really mean it?” Michelle’s voice is muffled.

“Of course. Also, Kun’s been getting into kickboxing lately, so if there’s anyone you need taken care of—”

“ _Ten_!”

“—I can get him to do it. Don’t worry.”

Michelle sniffles, but she smiles, and something floods through Kun—relief, maybe, but there’s a lot of warmth, and he feels less hollow.

“If you need to stay here tonight, I can call your dad,” Kun says.

When Michelle nods, he and Ten work in tandem. Kun has his phone out within seconds; Ten ushers her to the couch with her slice of cake, and heads back to the kitchen and grabs the cocoa powder. When she stops crying and falls into a deep sleep, the relief and the warmth grows.

Ten is furious that night, as they’re getting ready for bed, shifting between languages without realising.

“If I ever meet that woman, I’m gonna fucking skin her alive,” Ten says, and when Kun reaches for him, he trembles in Kun’s grasp. “How _dare_ she.”

“I know,” Kun says, unsure of what else to say. Because it sucks, and there’s a girl sleeping on their couch who feels lost, alone and unwanted, and she doesn’t deserve it.

Ten looks up at Kun, eyes blazing, even in the dim light of their bedside lamps. “When we’re parents,” he says, _when_ , not _if_ , “Our kids are going to be loved and appreciated no matter what they do. I mean it. Even if they want to eat glue for the rest of their lives, I don’t fucking care. I want them to know I’m on their side. Always.”

Kun can’t help but chuckle, resting his forehead against his husband’s. “I think we can support all of our future children’s endeavours without encouraging them to eat glue.”

“Who cares about their fucking diet? Kids are people, and they need people to _love them_ —” Ten’s voice breaks, and he sounds helpless, angry.

Since they’ve gone down this path, trying to be parents, Kun’s realised a lot of people don’t deserve their children. He thinks about this a lot now, especially now that he’s met Michelle. It’s hard, because Kun and Ten like to think that they would do their best by their children, do their best to look after them. Because they’re _not_ parents, and they can’t take care of the girl who so desperately needs it.

“We will,” Kun says, reaching down to kiss Ten, hoping to assure him. “We’ll love them a lot. No matter what happens, we’ll make sure they always have that.”

* * *

A month, then two, pass.

Kun talks to Michelle’s father about his concerns, and something changes because when they ask her about it, she seems lighter, more happier. When Kun talks to his mom about it, it’s clear that Michelle’s mom is still unhappy, but she’s seemingly come to terms with it. Michelle doesn’t talk about it much, but talking about her mom doesn’t seem to make her that unhappy anymore, and Kun hopes that it’s because her mother has assured her that she loves her.

It’s all very well and good, because the next time Kun and Ten go to Kun’s parents’ house for dinner, Michelle and her family are there too, and Ten can’t hide the disdain he has for her mother, no matter how much he tries.

Michelle comes to stay at their house when people at school find out she’s pregnant. She cries, not because the people are cruel—”They were surprised, probably because they thought I was a prude? But they weren’t _mean_ about it.”—but because when they found out her ex-boyfriend hadn’t even tried to support her, he’d been frozen out by the rest of the student body. He pesters her with texts all night, and Kun tells her she’s worth more than that, and when Michelle blocks his phone saying, “I don’t need him. I have really good people around me,” Kun beams and hopes she means him too.

Michelle meets Johnny and Taeyong, and she meets Mark, Hendery and Donghyuck. She’s still uncertain about what she’s gonna do with her baby, but she loves those kids. Donghyuck becomes particularly fond of her, and as her baby bump becomes bigger, he spends a lot of time sitting with her and babbling at it, as if he’s sure there’s a friend in there. It’s adorable, and both Taeyong and Michelle are teary the first time Hyuck does it.

Ten and Michelle become as thick as thieves, and Johnny hangs out with them a few times, not wanting to be left out. They go to art galleries and weird esoteric things Kun doesn’t fully understand, and Michelle smiles when she talks about Johnny buying her ice-cream. Johnny ends up driving Ten and Michelle to Michelle’s first ultrasound, and Michelle makes sure they all get copies of the sonogram.

Michelle and her parents to have more dinners with Kun’s family, and Ten eventually stops glaring at Michelle’s mom. It’s probably appeased by the fact that Michelle’s mom has begun fussing over what she’s eating, making sure it’s good for both her and the baby.

If Michelle knows what she’s going to do with her baby, she doesn’t tell anyone. Kun doesn’t ask. He knows Ten doesn’t, either.

* * *

Somewhat ironically, it is not Michelle’s mother that causes drama at the dinner table one night. It’s her father.

Kun’s dad is passing Ten the bowl of rice when Michelle’s father asks, “Have you started the paperwork yet?”

At first, neither Ten nor Kun answer, not realising that he’s talking to them. When he continues to swear, Kun shakes his head confusedly. “Paperwork? What for?”

Michelle’s father blinks. “For the adoption, of course.”

Kun chokes on his bok choy. “Excuse me?”

“That’s what you’re taking care of Michelle for, right?” Her father inquires, looking confused. “You’re going to take her baby?”

Michelle stares at her plate, shoulders stiff. Kun lowers his chopsticks, suddenly nauseous.

“I—That’s not why we did it—”

“Kunnie decided to help someone who was going through a difficult period,” Ten interjects, glaring at Michelle’s father. “We didn’t do it for any _gain_.”

“You didn’t talk about it with them?” Michelle’s mother asks sharply, looking at her daughter. “They’re trying to adopt _and_ they’re rich!”

Kun’s stomach rolls. They didn’t take Michelle in to adopt her baby. Sometimes he thinks about the possibility, but he’s tried not to entertain it. Michelle is more than some sort of gestational carrier—she’s a girl, a person, who is sweet and kind and perhaps they channelled their latent parenting desires into her the last few months, but she isn’t a means to an end.

As he struggles to find the words to explain this, Michelle sits straighter up in her chair.

“That’s not why they looked after me,” she says, and the certainty in her voice helps settle Kun a little, because he’s glad she knows that. “And that’s… that’s why I want them to take my baby. If they want.”

Ten’s chopsticks clatter on his plate, and then on the dining room floor.

Kun can’t think. Can’t speak. It’s everything he wants, everything he’s been hoping for. But—

“Is this really what you want, Michelle?” Kun asks. “I don’t want you to think you owe us, or be pressured into it—”

Michelle nods quickly. “You guys are the best. I don’t think you understand how much you’ve done for me. You didn’t expect anything, and you didn’t even know me. And it’s not like I owe you, not really. You’re gonna be the parents to my kid. That’s a big ask. I don’t think I can trust anyone else to do a good job. You deserve to be parents.”

Kun doesn’t know who breaks down first, between the three of them. He doesn’t know how his parents react to the news, nor what Michelle’s parents might think. All he knows is that one moment, he’s sitting at the table, and the next he has Ten tucked between one arm, and Michelle under the other, and he’s _crying_ , loud, ugly crying that would’ve embarrassed him or he would’ve been made fun of for if Ten and Michelle weren’t doing the same thing next to him.

“We’re gonna have a baby,” Ten sniffles, beaming at the both of them. “Well. I mean. Michelle will do all the work—”

“But yeah,” Michelle says, smiling through her tears, too. “You’re gonna have a baby.”

* * *

None of the big things really change, once the arrangement is made. Kun still wakes up sometimes and he pinches himself, and then he pinches Ten too, when Ten asks him if it’s really real, if they’re going to have a baby in six months. Michelle still comes over for dinner every couple times a week, sometimes bringing her parents. Kun and Ten still scour the forums, trying to accumulate as much knowledge on how to be the best parents possible, even if they don’t have a kid yet.

The little things do, however. Sometimes Michelle’s joined by her parents at Ten and Kun’s kitchen table. Michelle’s clothes get more and more baggy, eventually the bump appearing even under the most shapeless of shirts. Kun and Ten start looking up baby stuff, and make tentative plans on turning their office into a nursery.

They don’t hope for that phone call anymore.

Which is why when Kun is called by an unknown number after dinner, arguing with Ten over what movie they should be watching, his heart doesn’t seize with nervousness. He doesn’t think about who could potentially be calling. It just holds it to his ear and says, “Hello?”

“Hello, good evening,” an unfamiliar voice says. “Am I speaking to Mr Kun Qian?”

“Speaking.”

“Ah, I’m glad. I’m sorry that this call has come so late. I’m from the Good Homes Agency, and I’m calling to let you know that your application has been approved. We have a little boy—well, we may have two little boys waiting for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> for the people who've read any of the one-shots in the same au previously: michelle's is chenle's biological mother, and renjun and yangyang are the babies mentioned in the end. 
> 
> any/all feedback is appreciated!
> 
> [twitter](http://twitter.com/eggboyksoo)   
>  [cc](http://curiouscat.me/eggboyksoo)


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